Coffees I won't forget
A little over ten years ago, we had a rather significant coffee meeting at the edge of Diana Park. At least for me, that coffee started a project whose 10th anniversary we are celebrating this year. Sitting at an oak table, I sipped coffee and, in my usual verbose manner, shared my thoughts about starting a new company. My coffee companion, Peter Fagernäs, is not the quietest person either, and together we brainstormed the launch of a consulting firm specializing in advocacy.
Even then, the idea was to bring together experts from different backgrounds to solve important societal issues for companies as a team. From the beginning, it was important to specialize in advocacy, seek the most business-critical assignments for our clients, and ensure results.
Peter’s years of experience in corporate management thinking, combined with my own lessons in advocacy, made Blic special from the very first steps. Essential thoughts and sparring for the early stages came from my friend Lasse Männistö, who was then a Member of Parliament, and Pasi Torppa, the founder of the management consulting firm August.
Over the past ten years, Blic has developed rapidly. The first years could be described as pioneering years, during which we productized our services, built the team, and created internal operating methods. From the very beginning, I wanted Blic to be an office where the importance of the work community is emphasized. Especially in recent years, I feel that investments in the community have supported our team’s endurance as the world around us has gone through one upheaval after another.
Blic’s spirit is strong and the outlook for the future is promising. We have built a true professional team that combines long-term expertise from various backgrounds with an extreme desire to learn new things and a passion for tackling ever more demanding challenges. Today, we are involved in projects at least at three different administrative levels, influencing EU decision-making in Brussels and domestic decision-making at national, regional, and local levels.
When I look back at that meeting ten years ago, I can still recognize those ideas from the PowerPoint slides that we started building together with Peter and the Blic team. During our journey, many of our ideas have proven to be sustainable, and based on them, we have succeeded in creating entirely new ideas for the future. Therefore, I say that our journey is just beginning.
Niilo Mustonen
The author is the founder and managing partner of Blic.